The Cards boss revealed that almost a third of his squad reported late for Tuesday's Skrill Premier clash at Princes Park, blackening his mood.

Latest of all was Ipswich Town loan star Jack Marriott, the young striker dropped to the bench as punishment for arriving nearly an hour after Hill's 6pm deadline.

It did not appear to have any adverse effects early on though, when Scott Rendell diverted an off-target Josh Payne shot into the net to give the visitors a fourth-minute lead.

But the Cards - whose form is more up and down than a cyclist's kneecap - instantly switched off, limp defending allowing dangerous Luton Town loanee Alex Wall to slot an equaliser.

Hill's men, so impressive as they won 2-0 at Gateshead on Saturday, grabbed control again only to suffer an even more damaging blow on 34 minutes when midfielder Joey Jones - in only his second start since joining on a month's loan deal from Yeovil Town - made a reckless, slightly late, studs-up challenge on Jim Stevenson, leaving referee Paul Rees with little option but to brandish a red card.

Darts, battling against the drop but fresh from recent successes against Cambridge, Kidderminster and Wrexham, then rocked the Cards again when Wall grabbed his second on the stroke of half time.

The former Maidenhead striker's low angled finish oozed class, but more poor defending in the build-up was largely responsible.

Hill introduced Marriott and midfielder Keiran Murtagh 10 minutes into the second half, but a third Darts goal moments later - man-of-the-match midfielder Max Cornhill smashing in after a swift move, also involving Wall - killed Woking off.

With their proverbial tails up, Tony Burman's side rubbed it in on a glue pot of a pitch by adding further goals through Cornhill - a simple close-range header from a corner on 74 minutes - and substitute Lee Noble's volley deep into added time.

Hill snapped: "I don't think the sending off helped but it started wrong from the off tonight.

"I'm not the sort of person as a rule who puts my dirty washing out on the line but when you have a situation where five players are late in respect of the meeting time to go to work, you can't defend it.

"We've not helped ourselves in terms of preparation. I'm aware of situations and things do go on in respect of travelling to games, but we haven't respected the time enough to get here and prepare properly."

Hill labelled Jones' challenge as "stupidity" and added: "It's hard enough to be playing in this league 11 versus 11.

"I am very frustrated and angry tonight and I can understand a lot of other people being the same way."